3rd May 2013
London, UK
On Commonwealth Day (11 March), as High Commissioners in Bandar were gathering inside the Legislative Council building for our celebration with Pehin Speaker, one Bruneian was flying the flag for the Sultanate inside Marlborough House, at the celebration graced by Her Majesty The Queen. By publishing Fatin’s guest blog here, I have a strong sense […]
Read more on A Surreal Commonwealth Journey: From Brunei to New Delhi to London | Reply
25th April 2013
London, UK
In an earlier blog I described the Commonwealth as “the world’s first social network”, and Bruneians as amongst its most savvy practitioners. You’ll see what I mean in this guest blog by Helen Yeo, one of two professional Bruneian women who are representing the Sultanate in the CSCLeaders programme, in London, Manchester, Oxford, Mumbai – […]
Read more on My CSCLeaders Conference Experience | Reply
18th March 2013
London, UK
Practise what you preach, we are always told. With my Australian colleague, I had invited six other High Commissioners in Brunei to answer the question “What does the Commonwealth mean to you?” – so I was going to have to come up with an answer of my own. I’ll tell you what it was in […]
Read more on Commonwealth – the world’s first social network? | Reply
11th March 2013
Toronto, Canada
The second Monday in March is Commonwealth Day, a celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations and a brief reminder of why it’s one of the nicest intergovernmental clubs to belong to. Opportunity through Enterprise is the Commonwealth theme for 2013, an apt choice given the ongoing financial turmoil in wealthy nations and the continuing rise […]
Read more on 11 March 2013: Commonwealth Day | Reply
22nd February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The senior leadership of the global Catholic Church has been in Rome over the last week to celebrate the latest Consistory of Cardinals, at which 22 new Cardinals were installed. These included the Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamalay of the Syr-Malabars, in Kerala in India, His Eminence George Alencherry. Our congratulations go out to him and […]
Read more on The Commonwealth and the Catholic Church | Reply (1)
21st October 2011
Windhoek, Namibia
Queen Elizabeth II has arrived in Australia for this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting. She will be joined by head of states from across the organisation’s diverse membership, including President Pohamba and a sizeable Namibian delegation, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Investment. A key focus of this year’s event […]
Read more on Making the Commonwealth count | Reply
15th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Today is International Day of Democracy. In the UK we believe that democracy rests on respect for every individual in society, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other status. In fact this forms an indivisible part of our foreign policy. Through the work of the FCO we support not only electoral processes but […]
Read more on Democracy | Reply
27th July 2011
Ottawa, Canada
On my most recent trip to London, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office‘s (FCO’s) Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA), Professor David Clary. We took this opportunity to put together a video blog with his thoughts on science diplomacy, while enjoying a bit of sun in St. James’s Park. Here’s what […]
Read more on Science Diplomacy with Professor David Clary, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office | Reply (1)
19th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It was an unusually “legal” week for me in Sydney last week, with Lord McNally, Minister of State for Justice attending the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting, and later in the week the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve MP, Attorney General, participating in a separate Quint meeting with his opposite numbers from Australia, the US, Canada and […]
Read more on Commonwealth Law Ministers in Sydney | Reply
14th March 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
On 14 March, 54 countries across the world with a combined population of 2 billion people celebrate Commonwealth Day. But what is the Commonwealth? The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of independent states that grew out of the former countries of the British Empire. The most recent member to join was Rwanda in 2007, committing […]
Read more on Commonwealth Day | Reply
